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She waved her hand impatiently. “If I had come to you and said, ‘will you help me save my sister if I break you out of here,’ would you have accepted?”
I snorted. “I would have said you were full of shit.”
“Well, as you clearly see, I’m not. So? You owe me. This what I need in return.”
I felt a bizarre urge to smile at her wacky reasoning. “Doesn’t work that way, beautiful. You never offered me a bargain. I never accepted one. I am not bound by your convoluted reasoning, or a deal that you dreamed up in your head.”
“Goddamn it, Masters.” Her shaking voice was low, furious. “You fucking owe me this, at the very least. You could get me the help I need. We both know it.”
“Why should I put my people in harm’s way? It could be a trap.”
“What would be the point?” she yelled. “All Halliwell wants is SmokeScreen. Your team wouldn’t have that to give him. It would be stupid to set a trap like that. He’s not stupid.”
I shook my head. “I won’t be your tool, Red. I’m very sorry for your problems, and I’ve got nothing against your little sister. But no. Fuck, no.”
She shook her head, eyes streaming with tears. Her mouth shook as she reached into a bag under her skirt… and pulled out a white plastic remote control.
My head buzzed, my belly flopped, my whole body tightened in anticipatory agony. “So,” I ground out. “It’s like that, huh?”
“It… it doesn’t have to be.” Her hand, holding the remote, shook as hard as her mouth. “Don’t make me do this. Please. This isn’t who I am. I’m not like him. I don’t enjoy hurting people. I don’t get off on control.”
“No?”
“No, I fucking do not! I just want to save Reggie! My innocent little ten-year-old sister! I have money, Masters. As soon as I get access to it, when this is over, I’ll give you whatever you want. Hell, I’ll give you everything I have. I truly do not give a fuck about any of it. All I care about is Reggie. And I need your help to save her! Please!”
I studied her mascara-smeared face as I pondered my next words. “Pro tip, Red,” I told her. “Don’t cry and plead when you’re holding a mortal weapon on someone. It confuses the living shit out of the person you’re trying to compel.”
“Oh, fuck you,” she snarled. “I’m just asking you to help me save a sweet, awesome little girl. She’s a great kid, and she’s all I have in the world, and I would do anything to save her. Absolutely anything, okay? Including hurting you. If I have to.”
I studied her for a moment, the snarled hair, the heaving bosom, the wild, wet eyes, the red-stained lips. She was a chaotic bundle of emotions. She was not in control.
“No,” I said.
Her lips tightened in fierce resolve. “I swear, I will use this on you, Shane. I don’t want to, but I will.”
“Go ahead,” I said. “Do your worst. I’m done being jerked around. I was ready to die back in my cell. I’m still ready. So go ahead. Really.”
She just blinked at me, mouth hanging open.
“What’s your preference? To fry me with the electricity? Or to garrote me with the wire? There’s a lot of water in here, so consider the dangers of conductivity before you pick the electrical option. But the wire, oh man. That’ll make a big fucking mess, so brace yourself for it. It’ll look like a slaughterhouse. Five quarts of blood in a human body, but it looks like a lot more when it comes shooting out under pressure.”
Her face crumpled, and she wiped her eyes angrily with the backs of her hands. “Goddamn you to hell, Masters.”
“I’m all ready for hell. My papers are in order. Do it. I’m sick of waiting.”
She stared at the remote that was clutched in her hand for a long moment.
Her fingers went limp. The remote thudded down onto the floor of the van.
I let out a slow, even breath, and put my hand up onto the collar. “Can you get this thing off me?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I thought it would kill me if I left that place. Isn’t that what you told me?”
“It would have, but I entered Vincent’s deactivation codes before we left.”
I puzzled out the ramifications of that with some difficulty, as fogged with pain and drugs as I was. “So you were bluffing all along?”
